Every packing list has the usual suspects, but my unusual travel essentials are the things that turn a hotel room into my room. Passport, charger, undies, sure. Those are a given. These are the slightly odd extras I refuse to leave home without (and yes, I have been questioned about at least one of them).
My Basic Travel Essentials
1. Bon Maxie
My Bon Maxie silk comes with me on every trip, long haul or not. Hotel bedding is a lottery, and plane cabins are drier than a Melbourne summer. A bit of silk makes any bed feel like mine, and my hair and skin thank me for it the next morning. It folds down to almost nothing, so there is no excuse to leave it behind.
2. A water bottle (sometimes for flowers)
Yes, I drink from it. But half the time my water bottle ends up as a vase. I can’t walk past a flower stall at a local market, and hotel rooms rarely come with anything to put a bunch in. Fill it up, pop the stems in, and suddenly the room smells like the city you’re in.
3. Travel pillow
Not glamorous, not optional. I have tried to be the cool traveller who doesn’t need one, and I have woken up with a crooked neck somewhere over the Indian Ocean. Never again.
4. A good pen
Never trust that there will be a pen when you need one. Arrival cards, customs forms, a recipe scribbled from a cooking class, a note to a stranger. A good pen is the smallest thing in my bag and somehow the most borrowed.
5. Journal
My journal is where the trip actually lives. Train rides, café tables, the night before a flight. It all goes in, messy and unfiltered. If you want to start one, I wrote up my travel journaling tips here.
6. Journal bag
The journal needs its own little home. My journal bag holds the washi tape, glue stick, stickers and the pouch of receipts and ticket stubs waiting to be stuck in. Everything in one place, ready to pull out wherever I land.
7. Miaw
Last but never least, Miaw. Every trip, every time. Some travel essentials are practical, and some are just about feeling at home wherever you wake up.
None of these unusual travel essentials will save you at a border crossing or get you an upgrade. But they are the reason a strange room starts to feel familiar on the first night. Silk on the pillow, flowers in a water bottle, a pen in my pocket and Miaw keeping watch. Travel changes the view outside the window. These little things make sure I still feel like me on the inside.
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more travel updates.
[…] of haphazard travelling have made me think I’ve picked up a few travel hacks along the way — or, as my genius cousin likes to call them, “anti-mainstream travel […]